In the article of Architectural Exclusion by Sarah Schindler, the built environment is shown as an unseen barrier to the people of all time being in our history, present, and possible future. The built environment has also been ignored by those legal scholars, constructors and those responsible in the design layout of the cities and everything around it because they do not see the architecture as a way of regulation; controlling the way people act and where they go and possibly affecting how they travel as well. The walls, highways, one-way streets, and more obstacles have originally been inserted in the communities going back into our history, to separate or in other words segregate the Black including Latinos away from the Whites, since the white people were always “above” any of these minorities, well that being the mentality of before, the whites had to be separate from the rest. The whites always thought that they had to be protected from the “violence” and poverty of the minorities, they just did not accept them. They were extremely racist in many states and found that the only way to not see them or be near them, was through shutting down a part of a street or creating signs, and highways in a certain way that did not allow even the buses to travel those parts that white people were living in. Ridiculously, there was even “racially restrictive covenants, racial zoning, and exclusionary zoning…” said Sarah Schindler on her Article (In part III). It was to a point where those white city planners or designers of the way things would be gridded out, would literally cut through black neighborhoods where thousands lived and put the highway there so they forcibly moved them from there homes, making many homeless and making them go into public housing where they maybe could stay.(Sarah Schindler) It was absurd. There was an extreme amount of racism that existed before and still now.
Exclusion in the architecture of the environment was the main idea Sarah Schindler pointed out. Before it was racism and “violence” related that the people specifically whites who wanted those walls and other barriers built, and now it could still have that impact today. There are people that live in neighborhoods where they like having security so unknown characters do not trespass easily without permission of those living in those neighborhoods (Sarah Schindler), so those communities have the cage-like somewhat elegant type fences surrounding all of their homes. I am a personal example since I have gone to a neighborhood of one of my family members that in this article would describe as an architecture that excludes the outsiders, but for the reason the people of this particular neighborhood want more security their families.
Another point I see of this article in modern day America of exclusion that really catches my eye, is how many Americans of all races depending in the area they live in, well specifically suburban locations, prefer not to have transit stations or MARTA, anything of that sort due to their thinking of creating more traffic and bringing more violence in, and attracting more people living in poverty from the actual cities to those areas and get all the jobs; this breeds fear in people.
Overall, I see the point of having gates for security and the highways and signs as a fantastic way to be able to become more mobile and to have more opportunities. Now, in the part of racial discrimination, I feel it is an ignorant stupid way of thinking or being. I mean, Who wants to be excluded that way? or treated that way? Who wants to be forcibly thrown out of their homes? Is that humane? Is it moral to treat a person as a piece of trash? I don’t think so. Do you?
(Citation)
Schindler, Sarah. “Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination and Segregation Through Physical Design of the Built Environment.” Yale Law Journal. Yale Law Journal, Apr. 2015. Web. 23 Jan. 2016. <http://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/architectural-exclusion>.
